Former recruitment boss Katie Adamo and her husband, prominent dentist Daniel Adamo, are already known for their high-end Mosman real estate, having sold the family home in 2020 for $22 million. But their latest home sale has shocked even seasoned local property watchers.

The couple’s Clifton Gardens home has been sold off-market for more than $18.5 million, making a capital gain of more than $4 million in the 17 months they owned it.

The five-bedroom, four-bathroom house on 1254 square metres was already renovated when the Adamos purchased it in December 2020 for $14.5 million, and won the People’s Choice Award in the 2015 Mosman Design Awards thanks to a design by architect Prue Murdoch.

Well-placed sources say it sold for more than $18.5 million through Atlas’ Michael Coombs, who also sold it to Adamo, but the exact price remains unknown given no comment.

At that level, the result reflects a 27.5 per cent jump in value, almost three times Mosman’s median house price rise of 9.5 per cent, shown in Domain figures for the 12 months to March.

Given the $952,000 stamp duty on the purchase, and 525 days since it was purchased, the sale result made an estimated $5800 each day it was owned by Adamo.

Katie Adamo founded the global property recruitment firm Judd Farris and sold it in 2007. Dr Daniel Adamo is a director of medical financial services company MiFund and a co-founder of Mobile Dental Services.

The couple’s former home, also in Clifton Gardens, was purchased in 2008 for $7.55 million and came with a tennis court and swimming pool. During their ownership, the Adamos commissioned architect Susan Rothwell to undertake a major redesign to transform it into a six-bedroom mansion with interiors by Leanne Smeallie and Siobhan Rothwell.

It was sold by Coombs in early 2020 for $22 million to Mengyao Ling, the business partner of Olympian Michael Klim in his Milk & Co skincare range, making it one of the top sales in Mosman for the year.

The Adamo family’s latest sale comes a couple of months after Mosman’s record was reset at $33 million by the Balmoral slopes house of Marjorie and Trevor Conway, a Dubai-based director at one of the world’s largest interdealer brokers, Tradition.

Mosman’s prestige agents have been left with a shortfall of houses in the $10 million-plus range to sell in the past year, forcing a surge in ultra-prestige house sale results.

There have only been eight house sales in Mosman in May this year, The Agency’s Kingsley Yates said. “Compare to May last year when there were about 40 house sales.”